2. Two weeks ago:
we encountered Cornelius, a Roman centurion who, though a Gentile, was referred to as devout and God fearing.
we learned that God called out to Cornelius in a vision and told him to invite to his home a man named Simon, or Peter, who was staying in Joppa.
we found that Cornelius was immediately obedient to God’s command, even though it was a risk to his professional career, dispatching a number of men to fetch Peter from Joppa.

3. “About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” 

4. “The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven. While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

5. “Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for
“Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?” The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.” The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along.”

6. “The following day he arrived in Caesarea
“The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.” While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.”

7. Our text today opens with the three men dispatched by Cornelius nearing the city of Joppa around noon the day after they left Caesarea.
There must have been urgency in Cornelius’ request of his servants.
As the three figures broach the city limits of Joppa, Peter ascends to the roof of a house for prayer.
Though the heat and lack of food might send many of us into a “h-angry” sort of state, for Peter, it provided an opportunity to hear specifically and directly from God.

8. Just as Cornelius was being prepared for something that was about to occur, Peter needed preparation as well for what was just around the corner.
It is true that a God fearing Gentile would have little issue entertaining a Jew in his home yet even a moderately orthodox Jew would not willingly have entered the home of a Gentile due to purity laws.
For Peter to enter the home of a Gentile – to respond to Cornelius’ request - a special revelation was needed.

9. As the gospel spread out from Jerusalem, the hearts of Gentiles were being piqued by the good news of Jesus. The church was approaching a tipping point and her response to this challenge would be critical to the development of the church.

10. The vision uses language reminiscent of the early chapters of Genesis.
God used this vision to point back to His verdict that all of His creation is “good”, while simultaneously alerting Peter to the salvation story of Noah, in which, clearly unclean things were spared destruction by the hand of God.
At this point in the early church, the distinction between those things deemed clean and those deemed unclean by nature of their was still quite active.

11. Jewish Food Laws
The food regulations end with this statement of God – “you must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:46-47).
Adherence to food laws was illustrative of one’s overall obedience to God.

12. Our text informs us that Peter was “internally bewildered” by this vision.
In Mark 7:14-23, the Pharisees forwarded a charge that Jesus had broken Jewish purity codes around the consumption of food.
“Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) … what comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.

13. Our fellowship with God is not interrupted by unclean hands or unclean food, but by the sinfulness that resides in our hearts.
It is this sin that Christ died for, yet we know that the early church maintained these purity codes; they enforced the food laws of the Old Testament.
Having been birthed within Judaism, the early church carried with it many of the trappings of Judaism; trappings that Jesus had died to fulfill.
As Peter mulled all this over, he heard both the voice of the Spirit and his name being called - the emissaries from Cornelius had arrived at his door.

14. It was at this precise moment that the shoe dropped for Peter; the vision wasn’t just about food, it was about people.
If God had been at work in Cornelius’ life, calling him to Himself, purifying him through obedience, how could Peter label Cornelius unclean and avoid fellowship with him?
Spurred to obedience by the vision repeated three times, the next day Peter set out with Cornelius’ men and six believers from Joppa, to put this belief to the test.

15. There is a tendency to think that our salvation is based on some external performance factors.
It is not that we just simply need to alter our eating habits or some other behaviour to find ourselves in right relationship with God; we need God to touch our hearts and change them.
Our uncleanliness before God develops because of our evil hearts, not because of simple external practices.
Have you experienced this heart transformation or are you just playing Christian – toying with external behaviours while allowing our hearts to run rampant?

16. As followers of Jesus, we cannot consider anyone “unclean” based on some external criteria; we cannot refuse to extend the good news of Jesus to someone we deem somehow “unfit” fearing that their sin will somehow compromise our standing before God.
If we do not allow God to change our hearts, allowing barriers of prejudice to fall, we will miss ministering large swaths of our culture and we will fail to be the church God is calling us to be.

17. Communion shows us that we who are detestable in the sight of God by virtue of our sin are invited to eat at His table because, by faith in Jesus, we have been declared clean.
If you’ve placed your faith in Jesus, then you are invited to come as you are and share at God’s table, where people of all backgrounds gather equally.
Can you acknowledge that God can redeem even the most unclean of people and do you recognize that Jesus calls you to His table today?
Can you echo today with Peter that “God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean” and can you carry this conviction to His table?